Airborne radar systems have an ongoing requirement to switch high radio frequency (“RF”) signals. The prior art provides switches that are often contained in large packages and do not allow design flexibility insofar as electronic switch control. In fact, presently there exists a lack of commercially available high peak, high average power single pole, single or multi-throw switches capable of handling 10-25 kilowatt (“kW”) for use in electronic applications generally and more particularly airborne radar/electronic warfare applications. Furthermore, the prior art does not offer an Ultra High Frequency (“UHF”) switch in the same package as its digitally controlled circuits. Finally, the prior art offers no acceptable product that takes into account the multiple requirements of low insertion loss, high off-arm isolation, and low-risk switch bias/control injection to support operation exceeding 10 kW operation.
Therefore, a switch is needed that is small, low cost, highly reliable, and has high current capacity providing high power handling capability and low impedance to interconnect RF subsystems.